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Ilia and his brother were no strangers to scrapping in the streets of Rustavi, Georgia growing up, according to a book written by their mother.

What does Ilia Topuria know about the streets? More than some of his haters would think, it seems.

Leading up to his UFC 308 victory over Max Holloway, Topuria seemed to be beefing with half the Russian fighters on the roster due to comments about Islam Makhachev. “El Matador” expressed interest in fighting the lightweight champion but specified it would be in the cage, not the streets.

“When did you ever fight on the street European boy?” was the response from Mak’s teammate and Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov.

That became a repeated line across social media and forums during fight week, and one media member even asked Topuria during media day what he knew of street fighting. Topuria refused to answer, but not because he didn’t have experiences to share.

According to Topuria’s mother, Ilia and his brother Aleksandre were forced to fight on the streets of Rustavi, Georgia regularly.

“It was not rare, it was a daily routine,” she wrote in a new book about her son (translated by Giorgi Kokiashvili). “Whenever they were in the streets, they were fighting. Imagine: multiple boys would appear … they would come and tell you that they wanted your hat or your belt. There were three ways – giving up, running away and fighting.”

“Ilia and Aleksandre always preferred to fight, and at the end of the day, they always had their hat and belt.”

“It was not about the things,” she wrote. “It was about securing and defending their place in the streets … The way to their biggest championship belts started with keeping their own, ordinary belts in the streets of Rustavi.”

Not that we think anyone should be encouraging all this talk of street fighting. The UFC has been lucky that their relatively recent hands-off approach to unsanctioned attacks and brawls hasn’t resulted in any serious injury. They might not be so lucky when the added tensions between Russia and Georgia are added into the mix.

The last thing we need is some situation where things go horribly sideways, especially involving the UFC’s next potential breakout star. But for the record: Topuria is no stranger to defending himself on the streets.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Herb Dean wants to have a conversation with Joe Rogan, and the rest of the UFC 306 broadcast team after the UFC’s event at Sphere.

The veteran referee was the third man in the octagon for the main event between new bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley. In the closing rounds, Dean repeatedly told Dvalishvili to work more on the ground while in top position. Rogan called Dean’s tactics “insane,” and was quite critical of Dean down the stretch. While speaking on JAXXON Podcast, Dean reacted to the situation, and knew when he started getting negative comments flung his way on social media it came from commentary criticism.

“I’m not sure if I totally understand that myself,” Dean said. “I think the analysts who started it — and I don’t want to be critiquing those guys, or have an adversarial relationship because, first of all, they say a lot of good things about me, and they have over the years.

“I would like to talk to them… the commentators. I can tell it was the commentators before I even heard that it was because on social media, I was getting a lot of the same thing. … I see a bunch of grown men saying somebody else’s opinion, must’ve been something the analysts said, and it was.”

Dvalishvili ultimately won the fight, and the title via unanimous decision in a bout that the MMA community won’t have on their Fight of the Year lists. Dean was also part of a couple of other strange moments in the bout — including Dvalishvili yelling at O’Malley’s head coach Tim Welch seconds into the contest, along with telling Dvalishvili to stop kissing O’Malley’s back prior to the end of a round.

But it was Rogan’s comments from the commentary booth, more so, that got Dean most of the negative attention after UFC 306.

“They’re saying that I shouldn’t be telling the guys to work,” Dean explained. “This is something I’ve always done. Our sport, there’s rules that are there for safety. There’s rules that are there for fairness, we have rules that are there to build our sport. To make our sport what it’s supposed to be. To make our sport more exciting. …

“Most of the coaches can say my pre-fight instructions with me because I say the same thing. I tell them about things we have problems with. Most of them know the rules… but to this stuff, two things that are the most important things before I intervene: The biggest intervention is when I’m going to start your fight. So you always hear me say, ‘Fight back. Fight back.’ That lets them know so it’s not a surprise to them. … The next thing I’m going to say is, I’m going to say ‘work.’ And that means that I’m about to take your position away. Because in this sport we have position, and a position can lead to a fight being finished, but when I say ‘work,’ that means what I’m looking for is not just busy work, I’m looking for effort to finish the fight.

“Instead a bunch of [tapping] punches, where you could do a full five-minute round with this and not change, I’m expecting you to posture, throw bigger shots. Instead of trying to hold on, I’m expending you to spend energy advancing position, passing guard, or if you’re up against the fence, putting energy into a takedown. Something that’s going to bring the fight to a conclusion.”

For newer fans learning the nuances of the wild sport that is MMA, Dean lays it out as simple as possible as to why he issues warnings for these types of scenarios.

“If you have a superior position, if you’re not using it to win the fight, you’re using it to hide from your opponent to burn time,” Dean said. “That’s not what we want our sport to look like, I don’t think.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Max Holloway’s featherweight run appears to be over.

“Blessed” recently challenged for the UFC’s 145-pound title at UFC 308 and was knocked out for the first time in his career by Ilia Topuria. While Holloway teased a move up in weight at the post-fight press conference, he has since announced he’s planning a full-time move to the lightweight division.

“Maybe this is like my phoenix moment, you know, from the ashes,” Holloway said on his YouTube channel. “We’re reborn. So we’re on to bigger, better stuff and walking through a new door, and starting a new chapter, and I’m a big believer in never say never, and the big question right now is, ‘Was that your last fight at 145?’

“You guys saw me kind of touch upon it at the press conference and I can honestly say I think I’m done with 145. Your boy, like I said, we’re only getting older. I’ve done 33 [fights], this cut was easy, bro… but it takes a toll cutting weight, period, at whatever weight you are. Like I said, I had to give up ramen for my [featherweight] camps, so I’m done with that. I don’t ever want to give up ramen again. 155, here we come and 155 is where I want to stay.”

Holloway has competed at lightweight in the UFC twice, first losing a close decision to Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title at UFC 236 in April 2019, and earlier this year knocking out Justin Gaethje in the final second of their “BMF” title fight at UFC 300.

The 32-year-old owns many of the featherweight division’s top accolades, but for him, it’s about fan-friendly matchups, and starting a new journey in his already Hall of Fame career.

“This is a new chapter,” Holloway said. “This is where we start. This is where we begin, and I’m super excited for it. I cannot wait. Like I said, never say never, but I can honestly look you guys in the eyes and tell you guys I’m probably not ever going back to [145].

“I loved what I did, I did what I did, I did what I had to do there, I worked my way back, I clawed my way back up to the championship fight multiple times there. I was the champion, I defended at that weight, now it’s time to move on the next chapter and 155, there’s a bunch of fun fights that I cannot wait to take. We’re going to take some time off, we’re going to relax, heal, I owe my wife some downtime and some trips. So that’s all we’re going to do, but when I do make the return, it’s going to be at 155 and we are there to stay.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Brandon Moreno’s UFC Edmonton performance was certainly championship caliber, but the two-time champ isn’t sure it will be enough to get him a title shot next.

Moreno dismantled Amir Albazi over five rounds in the main event of Saturday’s card at Rogers Place to snap a two-fight skid with a unanimous decision win. “The Assassin Baby” said he will gladly fight the winner of the upcoming flyweight title fight between Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Asakura if the UFC offers it, but the 30-year-old believes he still may have work to do.

“I don’t know, hopefully [I fight for the belt next],” Moreno said at the evening’s post-fight press conference. “I want to be honest with myself, I think, maybe, I have to fight one more time before the title. But I don’t know what the UFC is thinking right now. Maybe they got so impressed with the performance tonight and say, ‘Maybe he can get the title next.’ I know [Brandon] Royval is there. Kai Kara-France is trying to get the opportunity for the title next. So, I don’t know. I’ll be ready for whatever.”

Moreno has fought Pantoja on three different occasions and come up short in all of them — including their most recent bout when he lost the title to the current champ at UFC 290 in July 2023. Moreno went on to face Brandon Royval for the second time in the main event of UFC Mexico City in February, when he again found himself on the wrong end of a split decision.

The exciting flyweight fighter has plenty of options in front of him, including potential third meetings with Royval and another top 125-pound contender.

“I can get [a rematch] with Royval,” Moreno said. “I don’t want to fight with Kai again because I fought him twice and I beat him, but if I have to do that [I will]. Tatsuro Taira is there. Kai Asakura, let’s see what happens there against Pantoja. If he loses, that can be the next one.

“I don’t know, let’s see what happens.”

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Light work!
| BJPenn.com

Former UFC heavyweight title challenger Derrick Lewis, who hold the promotion’s all-time knockout record at 15, was unable to add to his record at the UFC Edmonton MMA event last night in Canada, thanks to a mysterious “medical issue” that sent “The Black Beast” to the sidelines.

So what the heck happened?

“There is nothing to update beyond what the official release was,” UFC exec Dave Shaw revealed at the UFC Edmonton post-fight press conference. “It was not a fight-related medical issue or not a weight-cut-related medical issue. The situation yesterday was all … It was all happening in real time. So we didn’t actually have enough answers at the time of ceremonial weigh-ins yesterday. He weighed in yesterday morning.”

This marks the second time Lewis bailed on short notice.

“He had to cut a little bit but it’s not uncommon for him. And then, over the course of the afternoon, he started to get the medical treatment and we just didn’t have any answers. So at that point, it made more sense for us to proceed with the weigh-ins with Diniz and try to figure out what was going on before making any decisions. But there is no substitute to taking the safe road when it comes to athlete health and safety. So it was the right decision to not compete.”

His opponent, was later rebooked to face Marcin Tybura at UFC 309.

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